Income tax returns could be filed throughout the year in future, says NBR chairman

National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Abdur Rahman Khan has outlined plans to enact a law to allow individual taxpayers to file income tax returns throughout the year from the upcoming 2026-27 fiscal year.

The same facility was offered in the current fiscal year, but it has been extended repeatedly into March.

Taxpayers can also request extensions of another three months by applying online, according to a bdnews24.com report.

The NBR chairman said a law is being considered on the matter. Those who file returns in the first quarter (marginal) will get incentives or rebates.

"In the next quarter, income tax will be paid at the regular rate. It will increase a little in the following quarter and a little more in the last quarter.

It was unclear whether he meant that a fine would be levied or some other action taken.

The chief of the tax collection body made the statement at the pre-budget ceremony for the next fiscal year at the NBR’s Headquarters in Dhaka on Tuesday.

The pre-budget ceremony began on Tuesday, as per tradition, with representatives of the Newspaper Owners' Organisation of Bangladesh (NOAB) and the Association of Television Channel Owners (ATCO) present on the first day.

Regarding expanding the tax net, the NBR chief said: "We want to introduce some new systems to increase the tax net, especially in the case of VAT, we want to bring it under widespread coverage. Our VAT net is very small and we will see what steps we can take for marginal VAT payers.

"Similar to the steps we took on income tax, the number of taxpayers around 2014 or before was very low. To increase the number of taxpayers, we have said in many places that if you do not have an e-TIN (electronic Tax Identification Number) or if you do not file a return, you will not be able to get a host of services. We will do the same thing for businesses this time in the VAT law.

"As a result, we hope that the, let’s say 1.4 million TINs we had in 2014 – probably less than 1.4 million. Today, the number of TINs has increased to 12.8 million, though many of us report it as 12 million. But this growth has only happened because of these legal provisions, because we compelled it."

He said, "If we can do the same thing in the case of VAT… when I joined, there were over 500,000 VAT registrations. We tried a lot and lobbied in a few drives and now the number is around 800,000. But it shouldn’t be 800,000. It should be 8 million at least.”

"This year, as our business community said, that 6 million shopkeepers have done very good business, about Tk 2 trillion in transactions. Is that reflected in VAT collections? Not at all. That is why we will do major work on that front, especially to expand the VAT net."

He also raised the idea of imposing a wealth tax and taxes on inheritance of assets within city corporations.